Category Archives: Free Speech

Does Tenure Really Encourage Free Speech? Megan McArdle Tackles Issues in Higher Ed
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Does Tenure Really Encourage Free Speech? Megan McArdle Tackles Issues in Higher Ed - Video

Oct 18 2013

Lobbying reforms will curb fundamental rights to free speech while failing to restore public confidence in the political system, a parliamentary report has warned.

Legislation to impose tighter controls on the industry is also unlikely to increase transparency, according to the House of Lords Constitution Committee.

Peers criticised the Government for trying to push through the proposals with "undue haste", claiming the way it had handled the process was a "matter of significant concern".

Their report warned that the changes could also have " significant consequences" for groups in Northern Ireland, Wales and Scotland. Despite applying only to matters dealt with by the Westminster government, local campaigns dealing with crossover issues could be hit, it said.

The new Transparency of Lobbying, Non-Party Campaigning and Trades Union Administration Bill introduces a register of lobbyists and their clients and imposes a limit on the amount organisations other than political parties or candidates can spend on campaigning during parliamentary elections.

A statutory register of lobbyists would also be introduced to identify whose interests were being represented by consultant lobbyists and those who were paid to lobby on behalf of a third party and new requirements on unions to provide accurate membership lists will be introduced.

The Bill was published in July following allegations about the influence of lobbyists on Government decision-making as well as the involvement of peers and MPs with lobbying groups.

Ministers were forced to later make changes to the proposals clarifying rules on third party political spending to make clear that public rallies rather than member-only meetings are to be regulated and spell out that campaigners who respond to policy questions by the media are not captured by the Bill.

But charities still insist the changes will impact on their activities by limiting their spending on campaigning activities in election years.

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Scottish News: Free speech fears over lobby Bill

Fitchburg State University President Robert Antonucci makes a point during a forum on censorship at the Historical Society Wednesday night. Looking on are Sentinel & Enterprise Editor Charles St. Amand and Paula Giaquinto, assistant superintendent of curriculum and grants for the Fitchburg schools. SENTINEL & ENTERPRISE / JOHN LOVE

FITCHBURG -- What happens when free speech is stifled? And do people recognize it when it happens?

Those were the types of questions tackled in a panel discussion on censorship at the Fitchburg Historical Society Wednesday night. The forum showed that understanding of the issue has come a long way in the city.

In recognition of the 60th anniversary of Ray Bradbury's novel, Fahrenheit 451, the Fitchburg Public Library, in conjunction with Fitchburg State University, the Fitchburg Art Museum, Rollstone Studios and the Historical Society, has held related events all month.

They included a community read of the book, a staging of the play and showings of the movie.

Moderator Shirley Wagner shares a laugh at the start of the panel discussion. SENTINEL & ENTERPRISE / JOHN LOVE

Wednesday night's discussion on censorship in books and the media allowed the public to hear first-hand how area professionals tackle censorship.

Questions ranged from what policies the Fitchburg Public Schools and Fitchburg State University have in place regarding censorship, to what the Sentinel & Enterprise considers in its news coverage.

Paula Giaquinto, assistant superintendent of curriculum and grants for the Fitchburg schools, said that in her 14 years in the district, she has never received a complaint from a parent or student about a book that was taught in the schools or censorship in a class.

She said the district has policies that date back to the 1980s that address controversial issues and stress the need for "free and open discussion."

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Speaking out about free speech

Art can be free speech, according to Roger Fonseca from the American Civil Liberties Union.

Free speech is anything that tries to get a message across, Fonseca said. Yes theres free speech, but you can limit it reasonably.

On Tuesday morning, about 80 people gathered in front of HauMNAs mural by the Art Building to protest for their right for free speech and against the development of telescopes on Mauna Kea. Words that were painted on the mural were covered because they did not match the design that was approved to be painted.

Were on a university, Hawaiian cultural practitioner Andre Perez said. Were talking about free speech to express our politics and our cultural values. And that includes protecting our sacred mountain.

HauMNA is a student movement for aloha no ka ina, or love for the land.

FREE SPEECH

The First Amendment protects speech that is controversial, speech that is unpopular, speech that is provocative, speech that is critical, said political science professor Katharina Heyer.

According to Heyer, students at the university have fairly broad freedom of expression rights.

On the other hand, the university also has the right to maintain the proper functioning and order of the university, Heyer said. So they have the right to place limitations on the freedom of expression.

Heyer said the limitations the university places on free speech have to be reasonable and content-neutral. Reasonable includes making sure the acts of free speech are not disrupting the functions of the university. Content-neutral means the university should not be interested in the content of the speaker or the speakers message.

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Students raise their voices for free speech

Dr Tom Sunic on the repression of free speech
Dr Tom Sunic delivers his speech "From Double-Talk to Double-Me; New Forms of Repression in the Glorious West" to the British National Party (BNP) Members #39; C...

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Dr Tom Sunic on the repression of free speech - Video

Around 80 people gathered Tuesday in front of HauMNAs mural by the Art Building to protest their right for free speech to express their politics and cultural values, according to Andre Perez.

Were here to take a stand and say that the university cannot be a place of Hawaiian education and Hawaiian learning, while also participating in the desecration of Mauna a Wkea, Haley Kailiehu, a Ph.D. student at UH Mnoa said.

HauMNA, a student movement for aloha no ka ina, or love for the land, had painted a mural to be exhibited at the Ka Leo Arts Festival, protesting the developments of telescopes on Mauna Kea on the Big Island. Words that were painted on the mural were covered because they did not match the design that was approved to be painted.

Were on a university, Perez said. Were talking about free speech to express our politics and our cultural values. And that includes protecting our sacred mountain.

DEVELOPMENT ON MAUNA KEA

According to the UH Institute for Astronomy website, Mauna Kea hosts the world's largest astronomical observatory, with telescopes operated by astronomers from eleven countries. There are currently thirteen working telescopes near the summit of Mauna Kea, including the largest optical/infrared, dedicated infrared and submillimeter telescopes in the world.

The university has a lease from the State of Hawaii for all the land within a 2.5-mile radius of the site of the UH 2.2-meter telescope, which is essentially all the land above 3,700 meters elevation except for the portions that lie within the Mauna Kea Ice Natural Area Reserve. The leased land is known as the Mauna Kea Science Reserve.

In June 2000, the Board of Regents formulated the Mauna Kea Science Reserve Master Plan, which establishes management guidelines for the next 20 years.

Management of the summit area is now the responsibility of the Office of Mauna Kea Management in Hilo.

THE MURAL

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Student protest against developments on Mauna Kea and for free speech

Unlimited Free Speech?
Is free speech worth any price? ~ Expand for links ~ Website: http://www.rockingphilosophy.com Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/RockingMrE Twitter Acc...

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Unlimited Free Speech? - Video

Cape Town The more freely Africans can speak their minds, the more confident they are in the performance of their governments, says a report published today.

The report, released in Nairobi by Afrobarometer, shows than half of Africans surveyed in 34 countries across the continent say they are "completely free" to say what they think, while another quarter say they are "somewhat free".

Top of the free speech log are Malawi, where 79 percent say they have freedom of speech, followed by Tanzania (77 percent), Liberia (75 percent), Ghana (74 percent) and Tunisia (73 percent).

In the countries where people feel least free, only about one in four feel they have unrestricted opportunities to speak their minds. Bottom of the log are Sudan (19 percent), Togo (21 percent), Cote d'Ivoire (21 percent), Zimbabwe (22 percent) and Swaziland (24 percent).

Most of Africa's biggest nations fall somewhere in the middle, with 34 percent of Nigerians, 52 percent of South Africans, 53 percent of Egyptians and 55 percent of Kenyans feeling completely free to speak.

The Afrobarometer report was written by Professor Winnie Mitullah, director of the Institute for Development Studies at the University of Nairobi, and Paul Kamau, senior research fellow at the same institute.

In a news release issued with the report, Afrobarometer said: "Where people feel that they are free to say what they want, they also report that their leaders are more trustworthy and less corrupt than do their peers, the survey shows.

"Freedom of expression is also consistently linked to better ratings of government performance, especially with respect to government effectiveness in fighting corruption, but also in other sectors such as maintaining roads and managing the economy."

Fifty-seven percent of Africans support "an unfettered right to publish", the report says. This support is highest in East Africa, where 72 percent want press freedom, and lowest in West Africa, where the figure is 52 percent.

Afrobarometer adds that citizens rank their media highly for exposing government mistakes and corruption: "An average of 71 percent say the media in their country is either 'somewhat' or 'very effective'.

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Africa: Free Speech Equals Better Governance, Says Report

MORGAN HILL -- As they pick at a few egg rolls at their favorite Chinese restaurant on the outskirts of town here, Kendall and Joy Jones and Dianna Dariano recall Cinco de Mayo in 2010 -- and it still makes them seethe red, white and blue.

Capturing the nation's attention and sparking a patriotic backlash, their sons were ordered by Live Oak High School administrators to turn their American flag-adorned shirts inside out to avoid any conflict with Mexican-American students celebrating Cinco de Mayo.

In many ways, everyone has moved on. The boys have gone off to college. The principal and assistant principal involved have left Live Oak. The Fox News trucks are long gone from the school's parking lot.

But the controversy simmers, reaching a crucial stage Thursday, when a federal appeals court considers the families' free speech lawsuit over the incident. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals will hear arguments in the parents' appeal of a ruling last year dismissing their case.

The parents still want the Morgan Hill Unified School District to be held accountable for what they consider an unpatriotic violation of the students' First Amendment right to wear an American flag on a T-shirt on any day of the year.

"It's the principle of the thing," Kendall Jones says. "We don't want anybody else to go through what these kids did."

Adds Dariano, a Latina, "Do not say to anyone in the United States you can't wear an American flag. That's an absolute outrage."

Despite striking a public chord over the episode three years ago, the families and their legal claims have encountered substantial resistance.

Morgan Hill school officials argue that the Live Oak administrators' actions were a necessary safety precaution because of a history of campus strife between Hispanic and Anglo students on Cinco de Mayo. They maintain that safeguarding students trumps free speech concerns.

"This is not a case about the flag, or the First Amendment rights of adults in a public forum," the district said in court papers. "This is a case about whether we allow school administrators, familiar with the circumstances in their schools, to take reasonable steps to protect student safety in the face of threats and a history of violence."

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Free speech and the American flag: Lawsuit over T-shirt incident at Morgan Hill school lives on

Monday, October 14, 2013

Robert Van Tuinens run-in with campus police would be a funny story if it werent such a disturbing example of how freedom of speech is under assault on many American college and university campuses.

As reported in The Daily Caller and elsewhere, Van Tuinen, a student at Modesto Junior College in California, was stopped from handing out copies of the Constitution on Sept. 17 the 226th anniversary of the signing of the Constitution.

College officials informed Van Tuinen that he could get permission to distribute the Constitution, but only if he pre-registered for time in the free speech zone a tiny concrete slab big enough for two people.

Looking over the calendar, an administrator told Van Tuinen that she has two people on campus right now, so youd have to wait until either the 20th, 27th, or you can go into October.

Its hard to know whether to laugh or cry.

Virtually everything about the Modesto Junior College free speech policy is wrongheaded and unconstitutional.

As Robert Shibley of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) explains, the college sent police to enforce an unconstitutional rule, said that students could not freely distribute literature, placed a waiting period on free speech, produced an artificial scarcity of room for free speech with a tiny free speech area, and limited the number of speakers on campus to two at a time.

Outrageous, yes, but sadly all too common: According to research conducted by FIRE, a sixth of the nations 400 top colleges and universities currently have free speech zones, Orwellian doublespeak for restricted speech zones. (To find a campus free speech zone near you, visit thefire.org.)

When challenged, colleges sometimes back down or lose in court. In 2012, for example, a federal judge ruled that the University of Cincinnatis free speech zone violated the First Amendment. But many policies limiting free speech on campus remain in force as instruments for chilling and limiting freedom of expression at scores of schools nationwide.

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On college campuses, zoning out free speech